Jolly meets Kate!

 Jolly and I have been puttering about at home and running to town now and then. I've learned a few new things about him. It seems his favorite hobby is---wait for it---stamp collecting! I had to show him my "collection". If you can call it that...

He was very diplomatic about my pile of stamps, but did find several he admired. I gave them to him, of course. :)

One of his big dreams is the swim the English Channel! But for the time being he does laps at the local high school pool.

When asked if he had a favorite book he said he just adored The Wind in the Willows, but was also very fond of James Herriot's books.

The conversation soon turned to my next choice for a date. He was quite looking forward to meeting another nice lady. As it happens, my second pick lives right here in Minnesota! And her name is Kate. Now I've been told by my grandkids that Kate looks a lot like me! 

Kate was looking forward to meeting Jolly and making a new friend. I think she's more sociable than me, even though she lives remotely. So, I drove him to her cabin in the woods. She had planned a nice walk in the woods with a picnic lunch.

Kate is in her early 60's. (That's as specific as she'll get.) She keeps very busy with all of her interests. She loves picking blueberries in the fall to add to her oatmeal. She also hunts for mushrooms which she eats and draws pictures of in her sketchbook. (She knows which ones are edible, don't worry!)

She likes to hike in the woods and watch for wildlife and birds.

Her favorite books are nature guides. She likes to enter local 5ks, but she prefers walking them.

A neighbor picks her up to go to her tiny Lutheran church in a small town nearby. She enjoys teaching Sunday School and playing the bass in the worship band.

Jolly asked her if she ever felt lonely way out in the woods. She said, "Everyone feels lonely now and then. But I have lots of nice neighbors who visit and help me. And my granddaughter visits, too! That's lots of fun. Then, I also have a lot of church friends. So I'm just fine."

They enjoyed watching ducks on the pond while they ate a lunch of hoagies, strawberries and chocolate cake, with lemonade to drink. (Here's the pond they went to. I didn't have a photo with Jolly.)

As they walked back Jolly asked about bobcats, but  Kate assured him that bobcats would stay clear of them as long as they made some noise to let them know people were around.

And so, they sang loudly and told jokes and laughed all the way back to the cabin. 

You can learn more about Kate by reading a book called North Woods Girl by Aimee Bissonette. One of my favorites. By the way, the mushroom drawings are by Katie Daisy from her book How to Be a Wildflower. Another great favorite!

As you can imagine, Jolly was very impressed with Kate. He wasn't sure if he would be here long enough, but he'd sure like to see her play the bass at church!

Next time we'll meet another outdoorsy type girl, so don't forget to watch for that!

Jolly and I are going to have a cup of tea. He's not too sure about my tea-making ability. It is kind of nerve wracking making tea for an Englishman. I've heard you need to warm the pot and brew the leaves for about 5 minutes in water that's been boiled and then cooled for 1 minute. No sugar! Well, I finally found an Englishman who makes tea MY way. He's on a YouTube channel called Cruising the Cut, which is all about his life living full-time on a narrowboat. Anyway, he pours his boiling water into a cup, drops in a teabag, swishes it around for 30 seconds, removes it and then adds sugar! Yes. Just right. Jolly drank it like a good soldier. Maybe next time we'll break out the teapot...

Shalom for now! :)